EDITORIAL - When those without influence bluff

Two men in a private vehicle were pulled over by personnel of the Cebu City Transportation Office (CTTO) after they illegally entered the designated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane last Friday afternoon, March 20.

According to a report in this newspaper, the passenger of the vehicle then claimed he was a deputized Land Transportation Office (LTO) agent, asserted authority over the apprehension, and began taking photos of the traffic enforcers while allegedly threatening to report them to the agency.

However, the CTTO personnel could clearly see that the man who made the claim was wearing a sling that belonged to a security agency. The LTO-7 has also confirmed that the man wasn’t one of their deputized agents.

We have seen this before; people trying to use influence to get themselves out of trouble. We already get this a lot from people who are actually in such positions, but now even those who aren’t in such positions are now trying to bluff their way into getting out of being held responsible for an offense.

We see pulling rank or influence peddling happening a lot when some private vehicles dare use the EDSA busway carousel in Metro Manila then get pulled over for it; we must admit that we thought people here had more discipline or conscience and wouldn’t pull off something like this. It turns out we may have been wrong.

There’s a video of the incident where the face of the passenger who pretended to be with LTO and also that of his driver are clearly shown; it should only be a matter of time before they are identified. Charges for usurpation of authority or official functions under Article 177 of the Revised Penal Code already await the passenger, while the driver may be issued a show-cause order as to why he used the BRT lane.

With the BRT soon to be in operation we certainly don’t want people using that dedicated lane just because they think they are entitled to do so, then flaunting influence and power that they don’t actually have to get out of trouble.